Open Letter to Michael Jackson
Oh please, Michael! Why does your apology feel so facile, so much a part of a strategy to clean up your image? I, for one, don’t buy it. The images and words and sounds you create don’t just go away. They are indelibly etched into our consciousness, the damage is done. Your public relations problems might go away, but how can I forgive you for teaching my child the word “kike.” She might have conceivably made it all the way to 9 years old without hearing that word.
I applaud your effort to limit the damage. But you might begin to take responsibility for your actions, before you act. Don’t blame your Jewish friends and representatives who didn’t try to stop you. Maybe they were afraid to criticize your creativity for fear they would no longer be your friend and representatives.
You are an adult. You must act like one. Stop blaming everyone else. Stop seeing yourself as a victim who has been misunderstood. Could it be you are enraged by a young Jewish boy who “sued you,” “Jewed you” and “kiked you?”
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And what do you mean you weren’t there when they shot the storm-trooper sequence? Didn’t you approve the ideas before you shot it? Didn’t you see dailies, didn’t you see a cut, didn’t you decide how your music played against the images before the film was viewed by the public?
You have opened Pandora’s box, it’s too late to take it back. Can you undo the damage you have done to my child? As the self-proclaimed King of Pop, the repercussions of your bad judgment are so much bigger than if it were just some guy. You must acknowledge your influence over your young fans and think really long and hard about what you say or write, before you do it. Nothing you do goes unnoticed or unimitated.
Your remedy of changing the lyrics on future shipments, while a step in the right direction, is too little, too late. I say recall the 2 million records already out there. The automotive industry does it all the time when their product is faulty. Your record is every bit as dangerous to the human soul as a faulty car is to the human body. The remedy would have been to think about it up front.
My daughter will not be buying either version of your record.
